The Hardest Wordle and Connections Games of 2025: EXCLUSIVE

The New York Times stored readers on their toes in 2025, due to its secure of in style video games.

There have been greater than 11.2 billion puzzles solved on New York Times Games this yr, led by 4.2 billion Wordle puzzles solved and 1.6 billion solves in Connections.

For Wordle, one phrase specifically proved to be kryptonite for followers: Bongo.

That phrase was 2025’s largest streak buster, making it the toughest Wordle of the yr when it snapped 36,337 streaks again on May 14.

What made “BONGO” such a problem?

“Anytime you have double letters, it’s a little bit harder,” Zoe Bell, govt producer of video games at The New York Times, stated on TODAY Dec. 29. “And, then, if it’s double letters, and it’s a vowel, I think it’s even harder. And then it’s an ‘O,’ which is a weird vowel. And they were split up. They weren’t in the middle, so it just made it really hard.”

Bell, who stated there was a mean of 46 Wordle scores shared per second, stated her technique is to begin with a distinct phrase every day (very similar to Pope Leo says he does).

While many gamers select to start with “ADIEU,” as a consequence of all of the vowels, that is probably not the wisest play.

“It is not the best Wordle word to start with,” she stated. “We actually have a Wordle analysis tool called Robot and it suggests ‘TROPE’ or ‘TRACE’ might be better words, and end up with you getting a lower score overall.”

Bell additionally stated it’s necessary to not overlook the worth of the second phrase gamers guess.

“You can have a great first word and eliminate a bunch of possible options. And then if you just screw it up and guess duplicate letters later on, you’ve ruined your chances. We’ve done an analysis on this — the combination of your first word and responsive second word to what you learned in the first word.”

The most tough Connections puzzle got here on April 1, when, persevering with an April Fools’ Day custom, the board featured all symbols.

The most shared puzzle was April 22, with three million shares.

Strands was the third-most solved puzzle, with 1.5 billion, adopted by Mini Crossword (1.4 billion), Spelling Bee (667 million) and Pips (612 million).

Fans can proceed to play these video games, whereas welcoming a brand new puzzle into the fold referred to as Crossplay that can launch Jan. 21.

“It’s a two-player board word game, where you build off your opponent,” Bell stated.

You can pre-register for it at newyorktimes.com/crossplay.